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(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

J. GARDNER. TYPE WRITING MACHINE.

No. 537,606. Patented Apr. 16, 1895.

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(No Model.) 3 SheetsSheet 2.

J. GARDNER.

TYPE WRITING MACHINE- No. 537,606. Patented Apr. 16, 1895.

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(No Model.) Sheets-Sheet 3.

J. GARDNER.

TYPE WRITING MACHINE.

Patented Apr. 16,1895.

No. 537,606. "Ll 53?) IRYENTQK NlTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN GARDNER; OF MANCHESTER, ENGLAND.

TYPE-WRITING MACHINE. 7

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 537,606, dated April 16, 1 895,

Application filed September 8,1893- Serial No. 485,056. (No d l.) Patented in England February 25, 1893,1111. 4,171-

To ozZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, JOHN GARDNER, a citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, residing at Manchester, in the county of Lancaster,England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Type-Writing Machines, (patented in Great Britain February 25, 1893, No. 4,171,) of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to type writing machines, and its objects are to simplify their construction and to insure the exact positioning of the written characters relatively to each other.

My improvements may be applied with advantage to various types of writing machines, but it will be sufficient to describe the application to the machine known as the Gardner. From this description it will be found easy to apply them to other machines of a suitable type without any difficulty.

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate my invention, and in the various figures of which similar parts are indicated by similar letters of roference:Figure l is a general Vertical longitudinal section of a machine in which myimprovements are embodied. Fig. 2 is a vertical cross section through Fig. 1. Figs. 2 and 2 are modifications of the key stems. Fig. 3 is a partial section showing the improvements separately in side elevation. Fig. 4 is a plan and Fig. 5 an end view of Fig. 3. Fig. 6 represents a detail hereinafter described.

Before proceeding to a precise description of my improvements I will shortly describe the machine to which I have illustrated them as being applied.

A A are the type keys which have a vertical motion in suitable guides and which are normally kept in their highest positions by the spiral springs B B connected to their stems. The key stems have shoulders C 0 capable of coming into contact with and of pressing the wings D D on the rocking shaft E. On the end of the rocking shaft there is mounted the toothed quadrant F, so that the type cylinder is rotated by the depression of the type keys.

The type is supposed to be arranged on the cylinderin three fields, the upper one of which consists of small letters, the middle one of capitals, and the lower one of punctuation marks, numerals and signs. Also, each of the fields is divided into two lines. The several fields of type are brought into the position for the impression by means of the slide I, and a lifter J, which engages with the lower end of the cylinder so as to lift and lower it. If the slide be drawn out to its fullest extent, numerals and signs will be printed, if not drawn out at all smallletters will be impressed, and if drawn out to the intermed iate position capitals will be produced. Each position of the slide is governed by stops which are not represented in the drawings. In any position of the slide only the top line of the field will be printed on the depression of a type key alone.

If it be desired to print a letter contained in the lower line of a field, the space key K is simultaneously depressed, so as to bring a pin K formed on it into contact with one of the short inclined planes I formed on the slide I which is thereby moved slightly to the right through a distance sufficient to cause the lower line of the field to take the place of the upper line. It will thus be seen that each type key is capable of printing six separate characters, that is to say, one in each field when operated alone, and another in each field when operated together with the space key, the two keys being struck simultaneously as whenstriking a simple chord on a clavier. When struck alone K is an ordinary space key.

Parallel with the rocking shaft E there is on each side of it a rocking lever L, held in its highest position by a spring or springs against a shoulder O of the key stems, (Fig. 2,) so that when any key is depressed the lever is also depressed. As each lever is depressed a pin or projection thereon comes into contact with and depresses the end of the lever M, which actuates the impression hammer N and the linear motion of the paper carriage O.

P is the paper guide, Q, the printing guard, and B one of the two inking rollers.

I will now with reference to Fig. 3 and the following drawings describe my present improvements.

On the rocking shaft E I fix firmly as many wings D separately shown by Fig. 6 as there are type keys, (fourteen in the example illustrated.) Reckoning from the left of Figs. 3 and 4., the first and each alternate wing therefrom is operated by the keys on the right of the center line of the machine. The remain ing seven wings are operated by the keys to the left of the machine. The key stems are illustrated by Fig.2, where it will be seen that each of them has a part extending over that of the wing D on its side of the machine, and that the wing will be depressed downward on that side by the downward motion of the key. It has already been explained that the rotary motion of the wing shaft E is communicated to the type cylinder through a pinion and quadrant G F. Hence the motion of the type cylinder will be proportionate to the motion of the rocking shaft E. There are in the pinion G as many teeth as there are letter spaces in a line of type thereon, and since there should be some space between the beginning and end of the line, I make this space equal to twice the ordinary letter space, and add two teeth to the pinion for this space. The pinion consequently has sixteen teeth and sixteen spaces between the teeth. Assuming the type cylinder to be in its normal position, with the interval between the beginning and end of the line of type opposite to the impression hammer, and it be required to print the first letter to the left or right, it is obvious that the angular motion to be imparted to the rocking shaft E through the type key stem, must be just sufficient for this purpose, that is to. say, must turn the pinion G through the space of one and a half teeth. Similarly for the second letter it must move through two and a half teeth and for the seventh letter on each side through the space of seven and a half teeth. The several wings D are therefore fixed upon the rocking shaft E in such positions that they can respectively be moved through the angle required. This is effected by making all the key stems with their working shoulders O precisely alike, and by arranging the wings so that they are touched and acted on by the shoulders at different distances from the commencement of their motion downward. The working tips of the wings are best arranged in inclined planes as indicated by Fig. 5, the lowest tips on each side nearest to the front of the machine. WVith this arrangement in consequence of the lost motion of the key stem before its shoulder comes into contact with the wings, the two type keys nearest to the operator will turn the pinion and type cylinder through the space of one and a half teeth only to the right and left respectively and bring the first letters from the beginning or end of a line into the printing position, according to the direction of rotation given to the cylinder. Thus, the type keys to the right of the center of the machine act upon the'wing tips on the same side, and rotate the cylinder so as to bring the letters on the right of the cylinder into the printing position, and the keys to the left bring the letters on the left side of the cylinder similarly into the printing position.

The quadrant and the part of the rocking shaft and its bearings are shown as broken away in Fig. 4 in order that the transmission devices below the quadrant may be more clearly shown.

Each of the rocking levers is pivoted at one end by the fulcruinfand at the other end by the fulcrum f the two fulcra being in line with one another. Each of them also consists of the two arms L L connected by a light rigid rod L. They are connected with springs or a single spring such as S to restore them to their original position after action. Since only one of the levers can be used at once, a single spring is quite sufficient and this may be a spiral spring connected at its opposite ends to pins 5 8, one on each arm L as shown by Fig. 4. Near to the outer end of each arm L there is a projecting part T, which, on the downward motion of each key, is brought into contact with the tail U of a trigger which engages the spring detent V, operates the impression hammer and paper carriage, and ultimately comes also into contact with the lever M as already described. The detent is constructed preferably in the form of an inverted T, the end of the upper part of which is formed to engage with a space between any two of the teeth of the pinion G. Its lower member is adapted to be engaged and held by the trigger U until released, at one end, and at the other end to be acted on by the spring W. At this end also there is a pin or stud in the detent which rests upon the upper face of the lever M, so that when that lever is restored to its normal position, the detent is thereby taken out of action and again engaged by the trigger. The lever M and the detent are both operated by the double acting spring W, which is secured at one end to the post W, coiled at its mid length around a pin W on the lever M and bears at its opposite end on the pin X in the lower limb of the detent.

I do not construct the whole of the spring detent in a single piece as this would be inconvenient in practice, but form it in two or more independent parts each of which is secured upon the common spindle Y. The detent itself is fixed upon the spindle Y immediatelyin front of the pinion G, and the lower limbs which engage with the trigger and are acted on by the spring W respectively, are mounted on the spindle close to the lever M.

The two levers L are L-shaped, and on the vertical member of each there is fixed a pin or projection 19. The lever being fulcrumed eccentrically to the rocking shaft E, and having a greater radius than the wings D, the pin pmoves faster than the arm a which carries the quadrant F and the latter is consequently unrestrained by the pin on the downward stroke of the type keys. At the end of the upward stroke of the type keys, the opposite condition exists, the pin moves faster than the arm a, and restores the quadrant to its original position, in which the quadrant arm a is held between the two pins 10.

Referring now to Fig. 2,it will be seen that in the construction illustrated the type keys are arranged in two lines. Each key has two working surfaces, one of them, 0, for acting upon the wings, and the other, a, for acting upon the lever rod L. These working parts are formed upon the stems of the keys, but as the keys are arranged on two different distances from the parts they act upon, there must be a modification in the form of the stems to enable the parts to come into action. Such a modification is illustrated by Fig. 2, and the keys are separately shown by Figs. 2 and 2 of which Fig. 2 represents the key stern of the series farther from the center, and Fig. 2 the stem of the series nearer the center. On each key stem, in addition to the working parts, there is a stop b. Vhen any type key has been fully depressed producing an annular displacement of its wing D, the opposite end of the wing moving in the opposite direction ultimately comes into contact with the stop I), and the further movement of the type key and of the rocking shaft is prevented. This position of the type key and of the wing is shown by dotted lines in .Fig. 2.

The details of construction which I have herein described and illustrated may be modified, particularly in respect to the arrange ment for releasing the detent, and to the order in which the wings are mounted upon the rocking shaft E.

I am aware that detents have been already used in type writing machines but such detents have been brought into action by other means than by a spring, and their movement has ceased with the cessation of the movement of the type key, whereas by my present invention the detent is released and comes into action only at the end of the movement of the type key.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is 1. In a type-writing machine, a spring detent capable of engaging with the type carrier in each printing position, in combination with a trigger, means to trip the trigger to release the detent before the impression, and

means whereby the trigger re-engages the detent afterward.

2. In a type writing machine, a detent capable of engaging with the type carrier in each printing position, in combination with a trigger liberated by the movement of the type keys and disengaging the detent allow ing it to come into action, a spring tending to force the detent into engagement with the type carrier, and a lever or part such as M, which by its return motion re-engages the detent with the trigger, constructed and arranged substantially as hereinbefore described and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings.

3. In a typewriting machine, the combination with a rocking shaft carrying driving and stop wings, of an arm on said shaft, a rocking lever on each side of said shaft, engaging with said arm, means for holding and returning said levers to a normal position, and type keys adapted to simultaneously actuate both the shaft and the levers, substantially as described.

4. In a type writing machine, the combination and arrangement with a rocking shaft driven by the type keys through wings placed in differing angular positions thereon, of a quadrant fixed on the rocking shaft and capable of positioning the printing surface, and a rocking lever on each side of the rocking shaft also driven by the type keys and adapted to restore the quadrant to its position of rest and to actuate the lever operating the impression device, substantially as hereinbefore described and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings.

5. The combination with the rod E carrying the arm a and the driving and stop wings D, of the levers L, carrying the two side rails L and the pins 19, adapted to engage with the arm a, and a spring as S acting upon the levers L, substantially as described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have signed my name, in presence of two witnesses, this 1st day of August, 1893.

. JOHN GARDNER.

Witnesses:

WM. GEO. HEYS, A. H. PULMAN. 

